


When the Dust Settles

by goldenretrieval



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Civil War (Marvel), Civil War Team Iron Man, I love angst, Marvel Universe, No happiness here, Ouch, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Precious Peter Parker, Quick Read, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, i love tony i promise, sad read, this is short, this one hurted, tony is not perfect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 07:00:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17699780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldenretrieval/pseuds/goldenretrieval
Summary: Tony visits Peter's room after returning to Earth.This is short and angsty.Post Infinity War and Pre Endgame.





	When the Dust Settles

Tony looks around the tiny bedroom.

There is nothing special about this room, nothing that would imply it belongs to a hero, an Avenger, a superhuman, a genius. At a glance, it could belong to any regular, unremarkable, teenage boy. 

Discarded clothes are strewn about (he’s had to learn to change fast), the bed is unmade (he sleeps when he can), there’s notebooks and binders and papers littering his desk (he’s missing his backpack again).

 

Tony sees the report card and frowns.

The grades are… good. Not great, but pretty solid and overall good. The coursework is difficult, Tony knows. Lots of AP classes, heavy in maths and sciences.

 

In a different universe, maybe Peter’s grades could have been great.

But in this one, they are just good.

 

Tony frowns because Peter deserves great.

 

Peter deserves to _be_ great.

 

If Peter were here, he would tell Tony that he tried.

He tried, but it was so hard to keep up with his other classmates, who didn’t have to worry about saving the universe on top of their calculus homework and english papers.

 

There is one comment, one single comment written on the bottom of the report card.

 

_Brilliant but lazy._

 

The sick, twisted irony makes Tony smile.

He imagines Peter barely staying awake in class, pure exhaustion making it impossible for him to pay attention. Peter turning in half-assed assignments right before the due date expires. Peter not having his homework because his backpack was stolen in the alleyway he dumped it in.

 

“ _School comes first, kid. No superhero-ing until you finish your biology project.”_

Tony had once told him.

He had hoped, but never really expected, Peter to listen.

 

The two were very different, thank God for that, but they had one thing in common. Tony saw it in the kid the first time they met, and it made his heart ache.

 

The guilt.

 

_“What gets you out of that twin sized bed in the morning, huh? What's your M.O?”_

 

Tony could tell what Peter would say before he even answered. There was morality there, sure. An urge to do the right thing. A sense of responsibility.

 

But it was the guilt that made Peter put on the red and blue suit.

 

Tony had seen that, and he had taken advantage of it.

Because of course Tony Stark did a background check before he approached Peter in his apartment, what felt like so many years ago.

He’d seen the police reports.

He’d known about Ben’s death long before Peter actually told him about it.

 

Tony understood the guilt, and he used it to manipulate Peter, and maybe a small part of him hated himself for it.

 

But he doesn’t regret it, not in the slightest.

Because it was that same guilt that brought the two together, even if Peter was worse off for it.

 

Tony puts the report card down.

Peter deserved to be a normal kid, Tony knew that.

A normal kid with great grades who was captain of the decathlon team and went to homecoming with his girlfriend without her dad trying to kill him.

 

But that was Peter’s whole thing, that he wasn’t normal.

That he didn’t _get_ to be normal because his life just happened to suck that bad.

Peter deserved to be normal, but instead he got a spider bite and a dead uncle and shitty mentor.

 

He took it like a champ.

 

And maybe, in a different universe, Tony could have been a better mentor to Peter.

The kid clearly had a gaping hole in his life where a father figure should be.

 

Maybe instead of schmoozy shoulder claps and impassive jokes Tony could have given the kid a real hug and said _I’m proud of you, son._

Because Tony really was proud.

 

And Peter wasn’t done making Tony proud, he wasn’t even close to done, hell, he had barely _started._

 

Peter had so much more to do.

 

They're going to fix the disaster that Thanos has created.

They have to.

And Tony knows that at the end of it, he probably wouldn’t be there.

 

In his soul, he knows.

Tony has survived a lot, but he is still just a man. A man wearing a suit of armor, maybe, but underneath that he is more human than he would like to admit.

 

He would trade his life for half the universe in a heartbeat.

 

He would trade his life for a kid from Queens in a heartbeat, too.

 

Peter has lost so much, and Tony has a feeling he is going to lose so much more.

The man isn’t blind.

He sees the way Peter looks at him sometimes, when he thinks no one is paying attention.  

 

Those dark brown eyes that scream _You’re the closest thing I have to a dad._

Peter saw through the smoke show and bravado of Ironman. He crashed through every wall that Tony put up. Because at the beginning, yeah he put up a lot of walls.

 

Tony was terrified of turning into Howard, or even Obie. He wasn’t sure which was worse. Somehow, though, he didn’t totally screw it up.  Peter didn’t let him.

 

There’s only one picture of Peter and Ben in the kid’s room, and it sits on his dresser. There are actually more pictures of what Tony vaguely recognizes as Mary and Richard Parker.  He supposes Peter wants to remember what his parents look like, while Ben’s face will be impossible to forget.

 

Tony had no right to waltz into Peter’s life and give him yet another father figure that he would only lose.

 

It will be hard on the kid, he’s already dealt with too much death for one lifetime.

Peter will grieve and he will feel broken and lost and angry and maybe he won’t ever be the same person he was before.

But it will not destroy him.

He will bounce back, he always does. The kid can take more hits than anyone Tony has ever met.  He will take all of life’s punches and he will come out stronger, and smarter, and a little sadder.

 

Tony hopes that one day, things get a little easier for Peter.  

Maybe one day the dust will settle and Peter can take off the mask for good.

 

It’s unlikely, but there’s always a sliver of hope.

 

Tony sits on the twin sized bed and winces at the lack of memory foam padding. The thing feels like a brick.

 

He thinks about Peter graduating high school.

He thinks about Peter going to college, getting a degree, getting another degree, inventing something amazing. Something that will help people.  

He thinks about Peter getting married and starting a family.

 

Tony wants to be there. He wants to be there so bad, he wants to be there for every single great thing that kid is going to accomplish in his life.

 

But he knows, in his soul, that he won’t be.

 

Tony hopes that when it’s all over, Peter will sometimes think about him.

 


End file.
